Question

Given an array a, your task is to apply the following mutation to it.

a) a.reverse()
b) a.sort()
c) a.append(5)
d) a.pop()

Answer 1

The question deals with applying a sequence of operations to an array in a programming context: reversing the order, sorting, appending an element (5), and popping the last element off. The array finally remains sorted with the last element removed.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question asks for the effect of a series of mutations (or operations) on an array a. Assuming a is a list in a programming context (commonly seen in languages like Python), let's go through the steps one by one:

1. a.reverse() will reverse the order of the elements in the array.
2. a.sort() will then sort the array in ascending (default) order.
3. a.append(5) will add the number 5 to the end of the array.
4. Finally, a.pop() will remove and return the last element of the array, which, after the append operation, would likely be the number 5.

After all these operations, the array would end up being in sorted order with the last added element removed.